


There's many a slip between the cup and the lip

by huliganships



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Background Relationships, Fluff, Gen, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24040183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huliganships/pseuds/huliganships
Summary: Apparently curses were a real thing.Kei is not amused.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 16
Kudos: 110





	There's many a slip between the cup and the lip

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovelies! I am once again back on my bullshit! But there has been an exciting new development: This fanfiction actually had a beta and I'm eternally grateful that she took the time out to help little old me and polished up this peace of raw content I put in front of her. Please check her out, she's an amazing writer! So once again, thank you so much [Jade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadehqknb)!

Kei let out a deep sigh as he wandered the lines of bookshelves. In the last ten years he had read his fair share of them and it was getting harder and harder to find books that grabbed his interest. Of course, it would be easier if they could stock the library with new additions but because of obvious reasons that wouldn't be possible.

Yamaguchi trailed after him, casually remarking on one or the other book they passed. Kei was glad for his company. His best friend was one of the only people he actually liked to be around for longer period of times. And it helped that Yamaguchi could carry a lot more books then Kei. After another twenty minutes of listlessly picking out books from the shelves, Kei put an end to their search and hopped onto Yamaguchi's back. Together they rolled back to the reading section where Akaashi was patiently making his way through his own book.

It had been a bit tricky to figure out a way for him to read, since turning the pages was kind of a hard task when you didn’t have any hands… or any other appendages really. Even though their new bodies were ignoring many of the restraints of normal physical objects, some things just didn’t work out. A few of the others had found that out in sometimes rather harsh ways.

Akaashi looked up from his book when they were approaching and turned to put the wooden stick he held in his… mouth? Keyhole?... into a tall glass, which had been brought up into the library for that purpose. Of course this was an actual drinking glass and not one of the old servants, like Kei and the rest of them.

Sometimes it was hard to decipher which parts of the furniture were sentient and which parts weren’t. It wasn’t like all the servant furniture had sprouted faces all of a sudden. No, the changes were subtler, a face hidden in the wax of a candle or in Akaashi’s case a face hidden in the wood grain of an old writing desk with a keyhole as a mouth. All of that made it very hard to look someone in the eyes when talking to them… or not talking to an inanimate object because you couldn’t quite figure out if that was a face or just some really ugly paint.  
Kei thought he had lucked out. Of course he would prefer to be human again, but compared to some of the others, Kei didn’t have such a bad life. He could still move around without too many complications and the “arms” of his candle holder form could be used as actual arms if he was careful. At the very least it made entertaining himself a lot easier.  
“Did you find everything you needed?” The librarian turned writing desk asked them calmly.  
Kei shrugged his shoulders… as much as he still had them. “It will have to suffice for now. We’ll be back.”  
Akaashi swayed a bit forward – his version of a nod. “Anything ok down in the kitchens?” he wanted to know.  
“Everything’s going as well as it can go. Daichi and Sugawara are trying to keep the peace but you know how that goes,” Yamaguchi chimed in.  
They were interrupted by the doors slamming open with a deafening boom. In waddled an ornate clock, followed by a hopping feather duster. “Hey, hey, hey! Akaaaaashi!” came a happy chirping from the owl-decorations above the dial. When the clock registered their presence he gave an excited hop. “Tsukki! Yamaguchi! You’re here too!”

“We were just leaving.” Kei, still standing on top of Yamaguchi, who had been turned into a mobile serving tray, gave a gentle nudge to his friend.

“Leaving so soon?” came the sly voice of Kuroo, who was leaning against Bokuto. Even though their forms often ignored the laws of physics and/or matter, it was still hard for a feather duster to remain standing upright without help sometimes.

“Yes. I am sure you two are up to some kind of destructive shenanigans and I don’t want to be involved. Again.” Kei gave them his best haughty glare – which, considering he was a candle holder now, he was pretty proud of.

“Awwww, Tsukki, you’re no fun!” Bokuto pouted up at him.

“It has been known.”

“See you guys later!” Yamaguchi said cheerfully before rolling out of the library to the sounds of Bokuto excitedly telling Akaashi about his day and Kuro yelling for Bokuto to ‘put him down, damnit, just because he could grab him didn’t mean he could swing him around like a bat!’

With a slight chuckle, Yamaguchi rolled in the direction of the kitchen where they were expected to help with dinner. Even though there was only one person who actually needed to eat something, Sawamura and Sugawara insisted on a certain kind of protocol. “Just because we have been turned into ordinary household objects does not mean we should behave like animals. We are still humans with standards!” Daichi loved to tell them when they were slacking off or when the idiots had a “brilliant” idea again.

And speaking of the idiots…

Before they even rolled into the kitchen, Kei could already hear the loud voices of Hinata and Kageyama arguing, with the background sounds of Nishinoya and Tanaka egging them on.

“Ahhh, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, good timing. We’re almost done with dinner; you two can bring it up to Iwaizumi in a minute,” Sugawara told them when they rolled by on their way to the servant wing.

“Of course. We’ll just drop off these books,” Yamaguchi answered.

In their current state, the servant wing wasn’t really in use since most things in there didn’t really have a use for them anymore. But it was still useful for storing things or if one needed a bit of privacy from the general chaos of the rest of the castle.

Both of them stood at the ready next to where Sugawara was coordinating the dinner. Yamaguchi's role was obvious, while Kei was responsible for all the candles in the castle and had been appointed as the one to update Iwaizumi on the comings and goings of it all – not that there was much to report. But sometimes someone threw someone else out of the second floor window because they were annoying. And since the worst that could happen to them, thanks to the curse, was being sore it was more amusing than most other things around here.

Suddenly Hinata landed next to him and shuffled over to hide behind his larger form. “What do you think you’re doing?” Kei wanted to know.

“Kageyama can’t get me over here,” the tiny teacup replied. With two of his blazing sun patterns as eyes, Hinata was one of the easiest to look at directly. It was similar to Yachi’s pattern of flowers instead of celestial bodies.

“Please don’t involve me in your idiotic games with the king.”

Hinata scowled up at him. “You know he doesn’t like it when you call him that.”

“That sounds like a him problem.”

“But when you call him that he gets grumpy and when he gets grumpy he kicks me around the kitchen with his dumb giant body.” In comparison, Kageyama's form of as a big cooking pot was indeed gigantic compared to Hinata. But so was almost everyone else.

“That sounds like a you problem.”

“Jerkishima! Have you always been this mean or is just since you have this candle stick up your butt?”

“At least nobody’s drinking out of me.”

“That only happened once! I was still asleep and Iwaizumi wasn’t looking!”

“How can you sleep through getting tea poured into you?”

“It’s a surprisingly relaxing feeling.”

“Suga, control your children.” Kuro had appeared in the doorway together with Kenma. Kenma had also been one of the lucky ones who had no trouble getting around. His bucket form had four tiny wheels which made moving around or running away from responsibility very easy. If he was in a generous mood he allowed Kuro to use him as a form of transportation, but most of the time Hinata beat him to it. He had it down to an art form to balance on the rim of Kenmas bucket while the older one was zooming around.

“While it’s day time they are all Daichi’s children. Talk to me when dinner is done and the washing up starts,” Sugawara answered without even looking away from the food being carefully arranged on a plate by Ennoshita, Tanaka and Nishinoya. The plate was then carefully transferred over to Yamaguchi with a glass and pitcher (both non-sentient) of water and Shimizu, her shapely vase figure holding fresh flowers and Kei.

Hinata gave a petulant little wiggle in his direction, probably his form of sticking out his tongue, before jumping off Yamaguchi and hopping over to the sink where Kageyama was rinsing himself clean from the rest of dinner.

Kei’s life was weird.

Dinner was uneventful. Iwaizumi was trying his best to not let his frustrations about the situation out on them and Kei was trying to do the same. After all, it wasn’t entirely Iwaizumis fault that he insulted the witch who cursed all of them to this miserable existence. But cursing him just because he rejected her was a very petty move and Kei prided himself as an expert on petty moves.  
What Kei could be a bit resentful for was complete lack of interest in breaking the curse. In the last few years,there were a few girls and even one boy who had come through the castle. But instead of trying to be as inviting as possible they were all instructed to scare them off.

So Kei might have been a bit pissed about that. Maybe. You know, just a little.

* * *

The kitchen doors burst open, Bokuto announcing, “There’s someone in the castle!” . It spoke volumes for his loudness that even amidst the very noisy dinner rush everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the clock.  
“What… what did you just say?” Daichi wanted to know.  
Clearly agitated, Bokuto jumped up and down and repeated his earlier outburst. “There’s someone in the castle!!”

Chaos erupted in the kitchen with everybody talking at once. Sugawara had forgotten about the tea he was just pouring and the teacup in front of him was already overflowing. Hinata was bouncing all over the place screaming at the top of his considerable lungs. Kageyama was screaming at Hinata to stop shouting and bouncing around, the soup he was keeping warm flying everywhere. The cutlery couple Tanaka and Nishinoya were screaming all kinds of questions about how, where, when, WHO? And so on and so forth.

“Silence!!” Sawamura’s deep voice bellowed out and once again everybody stopped and stared at the head of their kitchen staff. “First things first, all of you need to calm down! Bokuto, are you sure you saw someone? It wasn’t the wind moving a curtain again?”

“That was one time!” the clock complained. “And I’m 120% sure this time! It’s a guy with brown hair and he walked in the front door and started looking around. Kuro is still in the foyer keeping an eye on him!”

“Is he now? Somehow that doesn’t help my nerves…” Kei heard Sugawara murmur. “Ok, we need a plan of approach! Someone needs to back Kuro up in observing this guy and someone needs to let Iwaizumi know what’s going on. The rest of us need to stay hidden and most of all silent! This could be our chance; we cannot let that slip away! Understood?”  
As one, the gathered household objects yelled their assent, but before any of them could move, the door opened once again and in stepped a tall, handsome man, gripping a struggling feather duster in one hand.

For a few seconds nobody except Kuro moved and both parties just stared at each other.  
Then once again chaos ensued.

“What the fuck is going on here?! What are you?!” the tall man screamed while furiously waving Kuro through the air. The feather duster let out a series of loud curses, still trying to wiggle out of the hand still holding him. With a savage cry Bokuto charged at the man, determined to rescue his friend.  
Behind them the entrance to the servant quarters burst open and in stormed the Nekoma cleaning crew, who had probably heard Kuro’s screams and wanted to help. After surveying the situation for a second, Yamamoto yelled, “Charge!” and threw himself into the fray, closely followed by Lev and Yaku. The man just screamed louder as he was assaulted by not only a small clock, but also a giant metallic trash can, a small dustpan and a broom.

“Somebody do something before they seriously hurt themselves!” Asahi pleaded, hiding his shaking knife body behind Shimizu’s elegant silhouette on the window sill.  
“What are you all doing?!” Daichi tried to intervene. “He’s our guest!”

“He’s got Kuro!”

“Stop hitting him!”

“Why can you all talk?!” the tall man demanded to know, while trying to keep away the angry household objects still trying to wrangle their friend free of his grip.

“There’s a logical explanation for all of this!” Sugawara tried to diffuse the situation. “Please put down our friend and then we can talk!”

For the fourth time that evening the door to the kitchen opened. They all turned to see Iwaizumi standing in the doorway in his full glory. “What is going on down here? I can hear you screaming all the way up to…” He trailed as his eyes landed on the handsome man who was still clutching Kuro to his chest. “Well fuck,” Iwaizumi said as the man let out a bellowing, very shrill scream and promptly fainted.

“At least this one didn’t run away,” Kei said into the completely silent room.

As it turned out Oikawa (because that was his name apparently) wasn’t the shrinking violet they had pegged him to be. No, he had fainted from pure excitement.  
“Are you kidding me? I always knew magic and curses were real and now I know I’m right!” he declared gleefully after he had woken up and they got some water into him.

“That’s great, congratulations” Iwaizumi said, a safe distance away. “Now leave. Please.”

Before he could even answer, Oikawa had been droned out by almost the entire household. They couldn’t just send him on his way, he was their guest, he should at least stay the night and eat something, and so on and so forth. Oikawa dutifully nodded along and chimed in with something along the lines of ‘wanting to not return home anytime soon anyway’. When asked to clarify on this, he deflected by asking if anyone would care for a round of chess. Kageyama was quick to rise to the challenge and suffered a crushing defeat.  
All in all Kei thought it was a great evening.

The next few days and nights were basically the same. Iwaizumi tried to politely tell Oikawa to leave, Oikawa and the household would protest and the tall man would stick around for another day or two.

It seemed that against all odds something resembling hope had taken root in their lives.

* * *

“So this is where you’re hiding.” The voice startled Kei so much that all the candles on his body ignited at once. Luckily he also dropped the page he was holding and saved the book from being scorched. He turned around to see Hinata standing next to the table he was reading on. “What the hell Hinata, I almost burned down the castle! How did you sneak up on me like that?” Hinata had never been the silent type, but after becoming a tea cup sneaking became impossible. Every jump and movement on the hard surfaces of the castle was paired with a high “clink”.

“I only jumped from carpet to carpet!” Hinata explained proudly.

Kei turned to look at the big carpets lining the library. That was an impressive feat he had to grant him that. The spaces between each of them were at least two meters and for an eight centimetre tall china teacup that was a long way to jump.

Grinning, Hinata jumped up onto the chair and from there onto the table next to Kei. “Why are you hiding up here?”

If he still had them Kei would’ve rolled his eyes. “I’m not hiding. I’m reading. Just because every other inhabitant of this castle wants to observe the awkward moments between Iwaizumi and Oikawa doesn’t mean I have to do that too.”

“But you did look when Oikawa and Kageyama were playing chess.”

“Well, yeah. Did you see how pissed the king got after he lost that first time? That was hilarious.”

“You’re pretty mean Tsukishima.” Hinata’s tone seemed way too fond when he said that.

“That’s nothing new. Did you want anything?”

“No, not really.”

“So you just came here to bother me?”

Hinata chuckled. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Kei let out a loud sigh. “Can’t you do something else with your time than steal mine? You could try reading a book for once.”

“Can’t.”  
He did a double take. “You can’t read?”

Hinata's body moved in that specific way it always did when he was angry. “Of course I can read Jerkishima! I just can’t right now!” He wiggled his body around to emphasize. “No arms or mouth. And turning the pages with my foot is really hard.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward couple of seconds where neither of them knew what to say. “Would you like to read with me…?”  
Hinata seemed to light up from the inside. “You don’t mind?!”

“I might. We’ll see how you behave.”

To his surprise, reading together didn’t turn into a huge disaster. Hinata had obviously been starved for something to do and was delighted to be able to read something again. Sometimes they discussed, a.k.a. bickered about, what they had just read, but it was actually enjoyable.

Over the next couple of weeks, whenever Kageyama or Iwaizumi and Oikawa had finished their chess games, Hinata would stay behind to read with Kei. They learned they both enjoyed fiction and the only non-fiction that could hold Hinata's attention were books about animals or nature. Sciences or language were not his strong suit.  
But he was surprisingly insightful for the motivations and goals of characters in fiction and he and Kei had held long discussions about the things they read together.  
It was nice.  
Kei was actually looking forward to these meetings, but had no delusions about any of this. Hinata was a teacup. Kei was a candle holder. Not really the most promising start for any relationship. Not that Kei even wanted a relationship with Hinata of all people. Because he didn’t. He just liked his company, that was all.

* * *

“Do you think Oikawa is going to break the curse?” Hinata had sidled up to his side in the kitchen where he was watching the washing up after dinner a safe distance away. Water wasn’t necessarily bad for Kei but it wasn’t very pleasant either, so he always chose to stay away from it all.

“No.”

“What?! Why not?!”

“Oikawa sees Iwaizumi as a curiosity at worst, a friendly curiosity at best.”

Hinata scowled up at him. “I think you’re wrong! I know the Great King seems shallow but I believe that he cares deeply about Iwaizumi!”

Kei shrugged his shoulders – or that part of his body where the shoulders would be. “Doesn’t matter. Even if you are right, the curse is not going to be broken.”

Hinata’s body gave an angry wiggle. “Why not?!”

“Because Oikawa is annoying. He’s needling Iwaizumi constantly. And you know that Iwaizumi scared away some pretty nice people, why would he fall for someone as grating as Oikawa?”

Next to him Hinata was standing strangely still and when he spoke next his voice seemed forced somehow. “So there’s no future for them because one is annoying?”

“Pretty much. I mean, would you fall for someone like that? I know I wouldn’t.”

“Oh.” Hinata's voice seemed even smaller than his body. “That’s… good to know I guess.” After that Hinata turned away from him and made his way over to take his place in the line of tea cups that were herded into the sink. Kei couldn’t help but notice his jumps seemed a lot lower than usual.

“You know, you could’ve chosen a more tactful way of telling him that you’re not interested in him.”

With a startled gasp Kei turned around to see Yamaguchi standing next to him. “What are you talking about? We didn’t even talk about that, we talked about Oikawa and Iwaizumi.”

“Sure. But you also told him you could never fall for ‘someone annoying’ and I think that hurt his feelings.”

“You’re talking nonsense today!” Kei was glad that he couldn’t blush in this body, because Hinata liking him? No, that thought was ridiculous. Hinata wouldn’t fall for someone like Kei. They were complete opposites. Hinata needed someone as bright and social as himself, like Yachi, or someone kind and patient with him, like Kenma, or even someone who could challenge and bring out the best in him, like Kageyama.  
Kei was just some tall jerk.  
Well, not even really tall anymore.  
So, just a jerk then.

Next to him Yamaguchi let out an annoyed sigh. “I can’t believe you two! You’re pining like love sick teenagers.”

“Shut up Yamaguchi!”

The next few days were a study of patience for Kei. Not only were Kei’s thoughts constantly drifting off to Hinata and Yamaguchi’s comment, but Kei also noticed how little he actually saw Hinata. In moments where the other had previously sought out his company he was now nowhere to be found. After a solid week of this Kei was sure that the teacup was avoiding him. Even more frustrating was the fact that Kei was actually hurt by this. When did that happen?

After Oikawa had both beaten and been beaten by Kageyama so soundly, both of them been meeting regularly in the library for chess games. Iwaizumi and Hinata usually joined them (to act as Kageyama's hands and moral support – one appreciated, the other not so much) and Kei had started to pick out new books at coincidentally the same time (and no Yamaguchi, it had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to catch Hinata and talk). Since Hinata seemed to still be avoiding him the library was unusually quiet, the silence only interrupted by Kageyama's orders for his pieces, Oikawa's occasional taunt and Iwaizumi’s admonishments not to bully Kageyama.

“We have a problem!” The doors to the library burst open and Bokuto was hopping over to them at a frantic pace. “There’s someone else in the castle and they took Hinata!”

Multiple voices exclaimed their shock at the same time. Kei needed a few seconds to realize one of them was his one. Not for the first time he was glad that he couldn’t blush anymore.

“Did you get a good look at them Bokuto?” Iwaizumi asked.  
“Well he was tall, like really tall and he had brown hair and he was wearing a white and purple jacket with the crest of an eagle on it!”

Next to them Oikawa cursed. Iwaizumi turned towards him. “You know him?”

The man nodded. “His name is Ushijima Wakatoshi. And he is maybe, possibly, looking for, ahme?” He ended his sentence with a sheepish head rub and avoided all their eyes at all cost.  
Kei had a few choice words he wanted to hurl at Oikawa but Kageyama beat him to it. “Shittykawa, what the fuck? Why didn’t you mention this before?!” Iwaizumi put one clawed hand on top of Kageyama to stop him from hurling himself at the man.  
Kei privately thought what a pity that was.

“Why is he looking for you?” Iwaizumi wanted to know.

“I may have run away from him.”

“So he’s your... what?”

“He’s my nothing!”

“Clearly that’s not true.”

“Kindly shut up Iwa-chan!”

“We need to rescue Hinata!” Bokuto was still jumping up and down urgently.

For once Kei wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Iwaizumi nodded and stood up.  
“I’m coming!” Kageyama exclaimed. Yamaguchi rolled closer to the table and Kageyama jumped on top of him, closely followed by Kei.

“Please tell me you’re going to scare him shitless!” Oikawa had a slight manic grin on his face. He linked his arms with Iwaizumi and looked at Iwaizumi. “Pleeeeeaaaaaseeeee Iwa-chan!”  
For a second Kei could swear he saw something like a blush creep over Iwaizumi’s mostly fur covered face but in the next second the cursed man was already back to shoving Oikawa away from him and huffing in annoyance.

“But really, what are we going to do?” Kei wanted to know. Someone had to be the voice of reason here if they wanted to get Hinata back.

“We’re going to take Hinata back and then we’re kicking him out.”

Oikawa pouted. “Can’t we throw him into the dungeon and let him rot?”

Iwaizumi delivered a swift kick to his backside. “I’m going to throw you in the dungeon to rot.”

“Iwa-chan, such a brute!”

Before the bickering could escalate any further they reached the atrium. In the middle of it, surrounded by angry household objects, stood a large man, holding a nervous looking teacup in his hands.

“Is this one yours? I found him outside on the street.”

“Hinata! Are you alright?!” Sugawara asked from his perch on Kenma.

“I’m fine.” Hinata's answer was a bit shaky. He attempted to jump down from the man’s hands, only to be caught between them.  
“Be careful,” he said and lightly patted the small tea cup. “If you fall you might hurt yourself.”  
Hinata was once again completely frozen and looked up at Ushijima with wide, star struck eyes.

The man looked up and his eyes landed on Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Kei was prepared for screams or any other kind of outbursts, the usual reaction to the owner of the castle.  
Instead, Ushijima only gave a slight nod and said, “Please excuse my intrusion in your home.”

“Ähm… that’s alright?” Iwaizumi was clearly taken aback by the lack of reaction.

“Oikawa.”

“Ushiwaka. Thank you for bringing in the teacup. There’s the door, you can leave.”

“Oikawa, I’ve been searching for you. I need to…”

“No! Don’t fucking say it, don’t you dare!”

“… bring you to Shiratorizawa.”

The scream that Oikawa let out was feral.

In the confusion that was the weird dynamic between Oikawa, Ushijima and a very confused Iwaizumi, Kei managed to slip away and corner Hinata before he could hop into his absolute safe zone – a.k.a. the inside of Kenma. No one dared to disturb him there.  
No one.

But he was successful in his mission and now Hinata was staring up at him with a similar expression to earlier when Ushijima was holding him.“T-tsukishima! What is it?!”

“You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you! Why would I avoid you?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Did I offend you?”

“No! You didn’t do anything!”

“So you did something.”

“No! No one did anything and that’s fine!”

Kei looked intently at Hinata. He was sure that if Hinata was a human he would be sweating bullets right now. “So you’re upset because no one did anything?”

“Yes! I mean no! I mean-” he paused, seemingly lost for words.

Kei let out a sigh. “Let’s go.”

The tiny teacup startled a bit. “Go where?”

“The library. We haven’t finished our last book yet.”

“You haven’t finished it yet?”

Kei gave him a condescending look. “Of course not dumbass, how could I? You were avoiding me.”

“Don’t call me a dumbass! Jerkishima!” Hinata visibly deflated and looked up at him with an almost shy look.”You could’ve finished it without me.”

“But I didn’t want to. Now, are you coming?”

There was no way to be sure, but Kei knew if Hinata had a mouth he would be grinning right now. “Yeah!”

* * *

Kei’s life changed once again after this. One of the reasons was that now they had two houseguests. Ushijima insisted that he couldn’t return without Oikawa. Oikawa found new and creative ways to tell him off. Iwaizumi seemed to suffer in silence. And the rest of the castle? The gossip had never been as high as it was then.

“Did you hear what he said? Oikawa was supposed to marry Ushijima! It was a contract between their parents.”

“Yeah but then he ran away and Ushijima is now honor bound to bring him back. Apparently, he has been chasing him for a year now.”

“Ahhh, that’s kinda romantic, don’t you think?”

“I mean yeah, kinda. Also kinda creepy. If the guy doesn't want to marry you, you can’t really force him, can you?”

“But that’s the thing! I asked Ushijima about it and he said ‘I don’t want to marry Oikawa. He is a brat. I am just honor bound to bring him back home.’”

“Wow, that is one determined dude!”

Not that Kei would know too much about that. Sure, it was kind of his duty to update Iwaizumi, but since the man was involved in almost all the noteworthy things Kei didn’t see any reason for why he should bother. And besides, he was busy. The other reason his life was different now was Hinata.

After the teacup had stopped avoiding him he was almost always glued to Kei’s side. Sometimes literally.

Kei looked away from the book they were reading this week. “Why are you rubbing your body against mine?“

“I’m trying to cuddle you.” Hinata looked up at him. “Is it working?”

“Not really, no.” Both of them were silent for a little while. Hinata was still leaning against him. “Why would you want to cuddle me anyway?”

“I thought you knew!”

Kei gave him a look. He tried to at least. “I think I might have an idea. But tell me anyway.”

Hinata’s body gave an embarrassed little wiggle before he straightened up to his whole height of 8 centimeters. “Because I like you, you tall jerk!”

Kei knee-jerk reaction was to ask ‘Why?’ but he was able to restrain himself. He had no room to talk, with him having a crush on an annoying, sunshine ball of a teacup. So he went with the second option.“You do realize that you’re a teacup.”

“So?”

“And I am a candle holder.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed with all those candles stuck up your butt.”

Kei really wished for hands, either to rub his temples or to slap Hinata with. He was still undecided what he wanted to do more.

“I like spending time with you. I know we can’t really do any coupley things but I don’t care!” Hinata let out a frustrated sound. “Don’t you want to spend time with me too?”  
Kei remembered the last Hinata-less week and conceded that yes, he would like that very much. With a sigh he shifted his body so it was leaning slightly on the small teacup. “Are you done with this part?I want to turn the page already.”  
Hinata’s body gave a happy wiggle before he answered. “No, not yet.”

“Well hurry up then.”

“Not everybody is as fast as you!”

“No wonder, you’re so small there is no way enough room for a big brain up there.”

“Jerkishima!”

They were still ‘cuddling’ with each other long after they finished the book.

* * *

“So, you and Hinata, huh?”

“Shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry Tsuki. I’m just saying, it took you long enough.”

Kei and Yamaguchi were waiting for dinner to be finished so they could start serving. The dinner routine had had a significant change to it. Before, Iwaizumi would eat alone in his room. Now they had opened the dining room again since they had three mouths to feed. In those dinners there was always a lot of shouting, courtesy of Oikawa, confused stares and blunt questions, courtesy of Ushijima, annoyed sighs and occasional shouting, courtesy of Iwaizumi, and a lot of amusement, courtesy of Kei.

Up until that point, Kei had been resigned to his fate. He would be a candle holder forever or for however long this curse would stop him from dying. But now things were different. Not only did they have a chance to break the curse (because despite what he said to Hinata a few weeks ago, he did have eyes. Or at least he was able to see how Iwaizumi looked at Oikawa), now Kei had a strong personal interest in returning to being human again. He could barely remember what Hinata had looked like before the curse. He remembered him being shorter then himself, which was almost everyone really, and that he had red hair.  
But now Kei wanted more.  
And he had the perfect idea how to get there.

When dinner was served and all three men started eating, Kei started his daily report. He was standing in the middle of the long table, Iwaizumi sitting at one head, Oikawa at the other. Ushijima had chosen a middle seat and was right next to Kei.

“There was a minor incident today with the Nekoma cleaning crew, Bokuto, a makeshift airplane and Sawamura. Kuro seems to be unharmed, but slightly traumatised. So is Sawamura.”

“What happened?” Oikawa wanted to know.  
“They thought it would be a fun idea to make Kuro fly. He landed in the open kitchen fire a.k.a. Sawamura. His feathers are slightly singed and don’t seem to be recovering, so in conclusion he should really stay away from open flames.”  
Iwaizumi let out a snort before he resumed eating.

“There was an impromptu ‘sword fight’ in the kitchen today. Tanaka and Nishinoya hit themselves with each other for a while and made a ruckus until Ennoshita threw them both out of the window and into the garden pond. Hinata was able to convince Kenma to help and fish them out.”

“That was nice of them” Ushijima chimed in.  
Kei saw his opening and took it. “They are both very nice. Especially Hinata.”

At this Iwaizumi looked at him with an incredulous look. “Since when do you have anything nice to say about anyone ever? And especially about Hinata?”

Kei used all his experience as a candle holder judging others to convey his smugness when he answered, “That’s because Hinata agreed to be my boyfriend. I wouldn’t want to scare him off now, wouldn’t I? But you wouldn’t know about that, would you Iwaizumi?”  
Before Iwaizumi was able to answer him, Kei turned around and faced Oikawa. “How about you? Can you relate?” The only answer he got was a confused stuttering from the brown-haired man. “What? You can’t?” Kei asked in mock confusion. “Don’t tell me a pair of household objects have more romantic experience than everyone in this room?”

“I have romantic experience.” Kei turned back around to face Ushijima. He could use that to his advantage.  
“You do?”  
Ushijima nodded. “Myself and Satori have been together for a few years now. He’s the reason I have to chase down OIkawa. If I can bring him to Shiratorizawa, my parents will agree to nullify the agreement.”

“How nice,” Kei sounded in a sweet, fake voice. “Congratulations.”  
Ushijima nodded again. “Thank you. Congratulations to you, too. Hinata seems to be a very nice person. How are you making it work with him being a teacup and you as you are?”

Kei gave the equivalent of a shrug in his current form. “We’re still figuring it out. But that’s fine. “After all— he gave a look to both men sitting at the ends of the table—”we seem to have all the time in the world since someone is too chicken to try and break the curse.”

“I never figured out why the word ‘chicken’ stands for scared. Did the people who first used this term not know any chickens? They are terrifying.”  
Kei was a bit envious about the fact that Ushijima was able to say things like that with a straight face.  
“They are tiny dinosaurs,” Kei agreed. “Maybe they saw them run away from something.” Another meaningful look to both ends of the table.“It will forever be a mystery. Oh, how nice, dessert.”

Yamaguchi used his impeccable sense of timing to bring in the last curse of the day. Before anyone could start eating, Oikawa stood up, his chair making a grating sound on the floor. “Iwa-chan! I have something to say!”

Iwaizumi dropped his head in his hands. “Please don’t.”

“No! I will and you can’t stop me!”

“And this is my cue to leave.” Kei hopped onto Yamaguchi's back.  
Ushijima seemed to be able to read the mood as well and picked up his dessert before leaving the room. When the door behind them closed he turned towards Kei and Yamaguchi. “Do you think this will be enough? I would really like to get back home, but those two are really stubborn.”

“I hope so. If it doesn’t, I will be forced to try out more drastic measures.”

Ushijima nodded in assent and took his leave, still spooning the dessert.

“What now?” Yamaguchi asked.

“Now we wait.” Kei answered.

Suddenly,there was a bright light surrounding him and the next thing he knew he was sitting on Yamaguchi's back.  
But this time quite literally. He lifted his hands in front of his face in wonder. “It actually worked. A part of me didn't really believe it until now.”

“That’s great Tsuki, but could you please get up? You’re much heavier as a human than you were as a candle holder.”  
Quickly Kei got up and helped Yamaguchi off the floor. For a second both friends just looked at each other before the shorter let out a loud whooping sound and crushed Kei into a hug. “We’re back! We’re human again!”

When the two friends let go of each other they registered the noise. All around the castle, voices were screaming, laughing and crying. Kei threw a look over his shoulder before he glanced at Yamaguchi again.  
The green-haired man, and that was right Yamaguchi did have green hair, how could he have forgotten, snickered and gave Kei a light nudge. “Go get your teacup.”

He let out a startled laugh. “Oh god, I do hope he isn’t a teacup anymore.”

He took off down the corridor in the direction of the kitchen. Around him people were hugging each other and rediscovering old and new friends alike. He was looking around for a head of orange hair, his only real memory of Hinata.

“Kei!”  
He turned around. On top of the staircase leading to the library stood a man. He had a short, lanky figure, bright orange hair and a smile like the sun. Before he could react, Hinata, because who else could it be, had jumped down the stairs and was wrapping his arms around his waist. “It is you! Kei! I can’t believe it! We’re human again!”  
His boyfriend grinned up at him. “Kei! Say something!”

Slowly he lifted his hands. One settled around Hinata's shoulders, then he pushed a few strands of orange hair out of his face. He gave him a soft smile.“You know, you’re still not that much taller than yourself as a teacup.”

For a few seconds neither of them said anything. Kei had a smug look on his face, while Hinata seemed to be in shock. Then he exploded. “I can't believe that is the first thing you say to me! What is wrong with you?!”

Kei couldn't help himself and started laughing out loud before he wrapped both arms around the smaller man and hugged him.

“Urgh, stupid Jerkishima! I can’t believe you! Now get down here you stupid, jerk tree of a person and let me kiss you!”

That made Kei pause and he pulled back slightly. “Oh? And what are you going to do if I don’t?”

A wicked grin spread about the others face before he suddenly jumped up and placed a kiss on Kei’s nose. “Then I’m just going to take what I want.”

Not to be outdone, Kei leaned down and placed a real kiss on his boyfriend's lips. When they both pulled back Hinata wrapped his arms around Kei’s neck to keep him in easy reach. Kei’s back protested. Years and years of keeping it ramrod straight had left a few after effects as it seemed.

“So, now that I’m not a teacup anymore, think we can give cuddling another try soon?”

He let out a fake sigh. “I guess I could be persuaded.”

The last ten years of Kei’s life had been weird in more ways than one. He had lost a few things but also gained a few. And he wouldn’t change a single one of them. Well, maybe a few. He could do without some of the more bizarre experiments the others had tried. But the important things? Not one of them. And if he, after everything was said and done and a sense of normalcy came back to the castle, purchased a small teacup with a distinct sunshine pattern, then that was nobody's business but his own.  
And maybe Hinata’s.


End file.
